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Saturday, February 11, 2017

Yeah, this is about right

We're averse to hypocrites because their disavowal of bad
behavior sends a false signal, misleading us into thinking they're virtuous
when they're not, according to new findings in Psychological Science,
a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

The research shows that
people dislike hypocrites more than those who openly admit to engaging in a
behavior that they disapprove of.

"People dislike hypocrites because they unfairly use
condemnation to gain reputational benefits and appear virtuous at the expense
of those who they are condemning -- when these reputational benefits are in
fact undeserved," explains psychological scientist Jillian Jordan of Yale
University, first author on the research.

Intuitively, it seems that we might dislike hypocrites because
their word is inconsistent with their behavior, because they lack the
self-control to behave according to their own morals, or because they
deliberately engage in behaviors that they know to be morally wrong.

All of
these explanations seem plausible, but the new findings suggest that it's the
misrepresentation of their moral character that really raises our ire.

In an online study with 619 participants, Jordan and Yale
colleagues Roseanna Sommers, Paul Bloom, and David G. Rand presented each
participant with four scenarios about characters engaging in possible moral
transgressions: a member of a track team using performance-enhancing drugs, a
student cheating on a take-home chemistry exam, an employee failing to meet a
deadline on a team project, and a member of a hiking club who engaged in
infidelity.

In each scenario, participants read about a conversation
involving moral condemnation of a transgression.

The researchers varied whether
the condemnation came from a "target character" (who subjects would
later evaluate) or somebody else, as well as whether the scenario provided
direct information about the target character's own moral behavior.

Participants then evaluated how trustworthy and likeable the target character
was, as well as the likelihood that the target character would engage in the
transgression.

The results showed that participants viewed the target more
positively when he or she condemned the bad behavior in the scenario, but only
when they had no information about how the character actually behaved. This
suggests that we tend to interpret condemnation as a signal of moral behavior
in the absence of direct information.

A second online study showed that condemning bad behavior
conveyed a greater reputational boost for the character than directly stating
that he or she didn't engage in the behavior.

"Condemnation can act as a stronger signal of one's own
moral goodness than a direct statement of moral behavior," the researchers
write.

And additional data suggest that people dislike hypocrites even
more than they dislike liars. In a third online study, participants had a lower
opinion of a character who illegally downloaded music when he or she condemned
the behavior than when he or she directly denied engaging in it.

Perhaps the most critical piece of evidence for the theory of
hypocrisy as false signaling is that people disliked hypocrites more than
so-called "honest hypocrites." In a fourth online study, the
researchers tested perceptions of "honest hypocrites," who -- like
traditional hypocrites -- condemn behaviors that they engage in, but who also
admit that they sometimes commit those behaviors.

"The extent to which people forgive honest hypocrites was
striking to us," says Jordan. "These honest hypocrites are seen as no
worse than people who commit the same transgressions but keep their mouths shut
and refrain from judging others for doing the same -- suggesting that the
entirety of our dislike for hypocrites can be attributed to the fact that they
falsely signal their virtue."

A final study showed that if an individual condemns a
transgression he or she engages in, and then admits to an unrelated but equally
serious transgression, participants do not forgive the
hypocrisy.

"The only reason that confessing to bad behavior reflects
positively on hypocrites is that it negates the false signals implied by their
condemnation -- it's not seen as at all morally mitigating
when it does not serve this function," Jordan explains.

The research helps to shed light on why hypocrisy -- whether it
comes from an authority figure or a loved one -- really seems to rub us the
wrong way:

"There are tons of interesting cases of hypocrisy -- when
people engage in the very actions they condemn others for taking -- in the
world around us, from politics to literature to everyday cases like an
environmentalist coworker who you privately catch leaving his lights on,"
Jordan notes. "While we all intuitively feel like it's obvious that we
should hate hypocrites, when you stop to think about it, it's actually a psychological
puzzle."

Together, these findings indicate that we dislike hypocrites
because we feel duped -- they benefit from the signal that moral condemnation
sends while engaging in the very same immoral behavior.

Thought for the day

Nothing funny about tired Saturday Night Live on Fake News NBC! Question is, how do the Networks get away with these total Republican hit jobs without retribution? Likewise for many other shows? Very unfair and should be looked into. This is the real Collusion!

Individual One’s tweet at 4:52 AM - 17 Feb 2019 after a long, hard day of playing golf at Mar-A-Lago on Day Two of our “national emergency.”

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